In September, two incredibly generous and loving people came together to celebrate their union and marriage! Sarah Whittemore and Phil Dao planned a beautiful wedding in Marion, MA at the Kittansett Club without missing a single detail. To thank all their attendees and celebrate their shared passion in giving back to the community, they creatively thought “What if the wedding favor is a charitable donation?” This beautiful idea transpired into a small donation card that enabled guests to make a choice from three charitable projects featured on the Jolkona platform. Jolkona makes it easy to give directly to low-cost, high-impact philanthropic opportunities around the world. Sarah and Phil have been generous supporters of Jolkona over the last several years. And to make their donations even more impactful, Sarah works at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that generously matches employee donations $3 for every $1 donated.

The selected Jolkona projects Sarah and Phil selected for their wedding favors focused on education and providing support to people in Vietnam, where Phil is originally from:

Barakat
Work to increase female literacy rates in Afghanistan, which are currently only 14%. Mothers can bring infants to classes to make learning more convenient.

Kenyan Education Fund
Helping children break the cycle of poverty, KEF provides financial assistance and support so students can attend secondary school.

Upcoming project: PeaceTrees Vietnam – Trieu Trung Library

Funding books, newspapers and magazines for the future library that provide a meeting and training place for the village level Women’s Union in Vietnam.

This generous wedding favor idea is a great example of two people showcasing their love and generosity on many levels. Philanthropy and marriage, what a beautiful couple!

In preparation for our annual Corks & Forks fundraising event, our team envisioned an amazing event with all fundraising elements- silent auction, live auction and program to highlight and illustrate all of the wonderful work Jolkona does. As the planning continued, we knew the elements of the evening’s program had to include a media piece about Jolkona. For the guests who were familiar with our organization and for the guests who were getting to know us, we needed a video to encompass all parts of Jolkona.

Enter Lucas Gregor, new Jolkona intern, fresh out of college and willing to take the lead on writing, shooting and editing Jolkona’s first impact video. For weeks, he dedicated his time to shooting in various locations from the Seattle Art Museum Sculpture park to Cal Anderson park on Capitol Hill to the Jolkona office downtown. With every part of the video from scouting locations, to bringing confidence and empathy to the video participants to editing, Lucas displayed passion and ease. The video encompasses testimonies from Jolkona partners, donors, volunteers and a board member to highlight what giving is all about. Here is Lucas’ brilliant work and final video:

In addition to giving over a hundred hours in creating the Jolkona impact video, Lucas is always available to help with other volunteer needs. In the month of October, Lucas volunteered at the Corks & Forks event, manipulating the media for the evening’s program. He also was a stellar bar tender at Jolkona’s Microsoft Giving Campaign’s international fashion show A Night of Fashion and Giving. Even with a last minute request, Lucas is always willing to help others and to be available to support Jolkona.

“Lucas is easy going, dedicated, and has an eye for creating great videos. He has been an amazing asset to the Jolkona team over the last six months. One of the first projects he worked on was our Volunteer Dancing video which was an editing project piecing together videos from around the world with our volunteers dancing while visiting our partners. The goal was to inspire more people to get involved with volunteering and he did an amazing job. Lucas’s internship is coming to an end and we’re sad to have him go but are truly grateful for all the creative storytelling he has helped Jolkona with in just a short period and we wish him all the luck in his future endeavors.” – Nadia Mahmud (Jolkona CEO)

“Lucas was a gem to work with from the start! The first time I met him, I showed him our dance clips – there were more than 20 clips, filmed to different songs, different tempos especially when we couldn’t hear the music, and often had shaky hands as our volunteer cameramen. I thought he would need at least 3 weeks to get this sorted out but he came back in a week with a rough cut that blew all of us away. The quality of his work continues with the video he made for corks and forks and I’m excited to see his artistic abilities continue to grow as Jolkona grows!” – Nancy Xu (Jolkona Volunteer)

Lucas has easily become part of Jolkona’s amazing volunteer team and we are so very thankful for his time and commitment!  Thanks so much Lucas!

Women make the world go round. They inspire, lead, challenge, and renew the lives we lead and the places we call home. But they also need our help. Girl Rising is the name of a transformative documentary that captures the day-to-day life of ten young girls from ten nations all over the globe. The heart of knowledge spearheading the film is this: when provided with adequate educational and social opportunities, girls change the world for the better. Check out this infographic which succinctly illustrates the indelible impact girls make in others’ lives. While you are at it, take a look below at a teaser trailer for the upcoming film!

Day of the Girl Alliance

The filmmakers are backed by an incredible, diverse partnership between NGOs like La Pietra Coalition and Girl Up, project partners such as CNN Films and Business Online, and the leading strategic partner Intel. Together, they form an unbreakable bond of support for the 1st annual International Day of the Girl. Today, Thursday, October 11th honors and celebrates the lives of girls and behooves those in their communities to give back in the name of girls’ education and empowerment.

Jolkona believes that every girl deserves an equal chance at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Education, economic independence, financial stability, adequate healthcare, and full legal representation; these are a handful of just a few goals among many that International Day of the Girl is all about. See these ambitions being fruitfully put into action through Jolkona’s partners, like a few standouts described below.

Championing Women through Jolkona

Empower Women in Nepal Through Higher Education: The Bo M. Karlsson Foundation is dedicated to advancing young Nepalese women through school beyond the primary level. Differing levels of gifts can provide them with much needed resources like transportation, an internet connection, school books, and even room, board and tuition.

Support Women Farmers in Sudan: Many women in their Sudanese communities are struggling to transform their poverty-stricken lives, which is why standing behind MADRE is so critical. Essential agricultural resources, like farming training, seeds, or a fresh plot of land, are made available through their hard work. In Sudan, women do the majority of farming but there is a dearth of support when it comes to land rights and income. Help MADRE change this.

Provide Education to the Females of Afghanistan: Look no further than Barakat for proof of exceptional work being accomplished for Afghani girls. The cultural taboos and societal imbalances for women pursuing education are significant, but far from insurmountable. Personally fund a girl’s accelerated literary class for only $40. Help these girls stay on track to blossom into highly literate, educated members of their community.

Support Rape Survivors in Haiti Displacement Camps: Sexual assault is a demeaning, destructive and inexorably heinous act. In the aftermath of such a traumatic event, professional resources and emotional support is imperative. MADRE, the previously mentioned women’s rights nonprofit, works alongside women in Haiti, offering hygiene kits and peer therapy sessions. International Day of the Girl should not pass in vain; instantly become an activist on behalf of marginalized women by making a donation.

Endorse this day as a symbol for the value and worth of women in our world. Watch what amazing things girls will achieve if given a chance. Jolkona’s partners believe deeply and emphatically in promoting equality between the genders and doing whatever possible to empower women. When girls thrive, so too do their children, families, friends and communities. See more Jolkona projects for and about women here.

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Postpartum Depression

Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Women’s Mental Health reports that upwards of 85% of mothers experience postpartum baby blues in the days immediately following birth. Yet, postpartum depression often goes unaddressed in communities. For the majority of women, feelings of tearfulness and exhaustion dissipate within a week or so; it is the continuation and escalation of these symptoms and more that pose a lasting threat to the mother’s well-being.

Women suffering from postpartum depression may experience severe agitation, guilt, or fear, loss of concentration, appetite, and sleep, and thoughts of suicide or harm to the child. Disturbingly, despite the deluge of health resources available in the world today, the pervasiveness of postpartum depression is often overlooked. One admirable organization looking to right this cultural oversight is Madre Bonita, a non-profit based in Japan. Started by Maco Yoshioka, Madre Bonita offers postpartum fitness classes for women to provide a healthy community in which they can improve their mental, physical, and emotional well-being.

World Mental Health Day

World Mental Health Day is today, October 10^th, an appropriate catalyst for highlighting Jolkona’s project Prevent Postpartum Depression for Mothers in Japan. According to the World Health Organization, this year’s theme is Depression: A Global Crisis. The day is intended to encourage and promote awareness, discussion, and activism on behalf of mental health issues. The WHO reports that over 350 million people suffer from depression, a disease which is not always easily diagnosed by the victim or those in the victim’s life.

Present research states that nearly 100,000 women in Japan experience postpartum depression in a pronounced way. Its detrimental effects wear heavily on mothers as well as adversely affecting their baby’s well-being. Madre Bonita’s dedication speaks to what every new mother truly deserves: rest, empathy, and professional resources that will augment the health of their whole person. Over 2,000 women took classes with Madre Bonita’s staff in 2010 alone; they hope to extend their cultural reach every year.

Photo Source: Madre Bonita

Healthy Mothers

By supporting the organization’s mission, you give struggling mothers the chance to move on with their lives in a positive manner. Those who benefit from Jolkona’s project are typically young or single mothers, or mothers of premature babies or those with significant disabilities. $50 covers the cost of one class for a mother to rehabilitate her mental health and stability. For only $15, important booklet materials are given to a woman to supplement her recovery concerning postpartum depression. It is a small amount to give to register such an unquantifiable impact on a mother, her child, and their lives together.

If you or someone in your life is suffering from depression, know that there is help and hope for you. Call to speak with a professional free of charge, day or night, and reach someone willing to listen unconditionally. Stand in solidarity with people suffering around the world and celebrate World Mental Health Day as a means towards greater healing.

Prevent Postpartum Depression for Mothers in Japan and promote the healthy empowerment of women today.

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Jolkona takes considerable pride in its multitude of partnerships. The organizations we link up with are committed and compassionate. Roots & Wings International is one such non-profit that truly works hard for its cause, which is fostering educational opportunity for Guatemalan youth. A partner of Jolkona’s since July 2009, we are grateful for their passion and purpose.

History

Roots & Wings International began simply enough, with founder Erik Swanson in Guatemala on a post-college expedition. After spending several months teaching English to students and forming a connection with the community, though, those couple of months rapidly snowballed into a two year stay in Guatemala.

By the time he was done, Erik had worked as the director for El Instituto La Asunción, a junior high and high school. He even supported the college ambitions of the top two high school graduates – one boy and one girl – by singlehandedly funding their university scholarships.

Erik officially founded Roots & Wings International in 2004, making education the organization’s central mission. Illiteracy is a prevalent issue in Guatemala, with up to a 70% illiteracy rate in rural communities. By virtue of families basing their livelihood on predominately subsistence farming, the majority of children do not receive more than an elementary school education.

Photo Source: Roots & Wings Intl.

Mission

Roots & Wings International wants to change the illiteracy levels in Guatemala – but in a way which facilitates self-sustained development. The autonomy and agency of individuals within their own communities is paramount. Erik and those that work alongside him have seen first-hand that when given proper educational access, people in their local communities become best-equipped to lead, change, and cultivate their environment.

They are witnesses to short-term improvements in students’ lives vis-a -vis scholarships and tutoring programs. Long-term, though, it is the computer training lessons and college education that will sustain them in the future. Roots & Wings commented that, “many of our scholarship students intend to return to their home communities to be teachers, lawyers, or doctors…our mission is to improve overall educational opportunities to empower young people to promote development in their own communities.”

Change

Roots & Wings International shared an especially meaningful story about one of their students with us. They recounted, “Manuela Tzep Lopez is one of our scholarship students nearing the end of her studies in Social Work…she is also working as a coordinator in a small community development organization.” Her diligent work ethic shines through brightly; “she is gaining valuable social work experience coordinating job training programs for young women and inmates.” By empowering the youth, Roots & Wings are providing them the education and tools they need to help others in the community.

Roots & Wings International is a trustworthy, industrious non-profit that deserves recognition. For individuals interested in making a positive impact on the lives of Guatemalan children, follow the link below for an easy, reliable way to do so. You can support computer literacy in the region by providing a month’s worth of training for as little as $5.

Give a donation through Jolkona via Roots & Wings International and improve a child’s education today.

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Jolkona’s 1st annual Corks & Forks auction and dinner event is coming up quick! Join us on October 4th from 6:30-9:30pm at the Blue Ribbon Cooking School for an evening of cooking, drink-making, and bidding to unite the community around a mission of giving. Hosted by auctioneer Jim Dever of Evening Magazine, the night is sure to be full of laughs and fun!

The assortment of hands-on classes will teach you how to craft everything from savory truffles to sophisticated cocktails to mouth-watering soups and salads. Come ready to wow family, friends, and co-workers at future dinner parties!

Excellent prizes and getaways will be up for auction – not to mention the plethora of items available in the silent auction! Take a look at the complete auction item list for the big night.

Grab yourself a ticket while they are still available right here!

Sponsors

A huge thank you goes out to the major sponsors of Corks & Forks, Coinstar, Inc. and Jaa’ Warren Hooker Fitness Performance. We went ahead and asked them a couple of questions about partnering with Jolkona and the importance of food to them.

Coinstar, Inc.

A local company, Coinstar, Inc got its start in Bellevue, WA in 1991. Jolkona is so excited to have Coinstar onboard for the upcoming auction and fundraising event. By backing our mission, their resources and reputation help illuminate the projects we are dedicated to.

Thank you Coinstar for your sponsorship and support!

Why are you a sponsor for Jolkona?
Coinstar, Inc. is proud to sponsor Jolkona for its innovative approach to giving. Jolkona’s use of technology brings donors and grantees closer together by reporting on impact. It’s an excellent method to entice more people to give!

What has food meant to you?
Like Jolkona, we feel lucky our company is headquartered in Seattle, surrounded by a robust local food movement. Our region’s focus on food feels special and serves as another way to bring our community together, whether that’s at the community garden, co-op grocery or family dinner table.

Jaa’ Warren Hooker Fitness Performance

Jaa’ Warren Hooker Fitness Performance is made up of a team of fitness professionals who provide mobile services for exercise, nutrition, and rehabilitation needs. Jolkona is thrilled to have Jaa’ Warren’s involvement and support. It means a lot to have meaningful, local sponsors for a special event like Corks & Forks.

Once more, thank you to Jaa’ Warren Hooker Fitness Performance!

What has food meant to you?

Thanksgiving and Christmas have always been my favorite holidays, gathering with friends and family to tell stories and create a positive community. Besides the food always being spectacular, food brings people together.

Local Projects

Jolkona works intimately with a number of local organizations dedicated to furthering education, employment, and personal well-being. We would like to spotlight a few of these to give you a better idea about the kinds of non-profits we support in our own backyard.

Washington CASH aims to educate and motivate low-income individuals with entrepreneurial ambitions. Their means of empowerment include personalized business training, professional workshops, business development training courses, and even microloans to help legitimately finance start up businesses. CASH strives to give people the skill sets and confidence necessary to achieve success in today’s tumultuous economy.

The Pacific Science Center is a leading light for education and culture in Seattle. It has been a pillar of the community for fifty years as the nation’s first science and technology-based museum. Jolkona partners with the Pacific Science Center to give children the opportunity to attend science camp by sponsoring campers. Camps for Curious Minds are made up of countless programs for every age and inclination. These experiences prove to be exciting, edifying, and life-changing for our youth.

Jubilee Women’s Center provides housing, staffing resources, and life improvement services for homeless women in the community. They are determined in their undertaking to restore dignity and self-sufficiency to the lives of women who have endured an array of struggles. Jolkona facilitates shopping excursions for women to boost self-confidence, as well as thorough one-on-one professional care. Jubilee’s focus on comprehensive services from employment to education to mental health makes it a meaningful hub in our community.

Proceeds

100% of the proceeds from Corks & Forks go to the Kona Fund for Jolkona, which sustains our goals in several ways. The contributions help maintain our operations, which allow us to take young philanthropists under our wing, while also ensuring 100% of the donations we receive are given to their rightful cause and actualized. It is because of your generous support that Jolkona is able to devote its time and energy to those in need.

Please, come join us for this exceptional opportunity to show your support for one another in the community and Jolkona!

General Tickets are currently $120, while tickets for our NextGen young philanthropists are at the special price of $100. VIP Tickets (which include awesome bonuses like champagne and wine, appetizers, and your own apron) are $175 a piece.

Buy tickets now for you and your party before ticket prices increase on Oct. 3rd at 5pm!

See you at Corks & Forks on Oct. 4^th to celebrate the generous world of giving!

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We’ve posted a lot before about family planning, and why women are the key to the future, but I think this infographic presents the issue (and a solution!) along a slightly different tack. Girls who become pregnant before 18 years of age are at much higher risk of complications during birth, not to mention that they are often forced to drop out of school to care for their baby. This infographic shows how these potentially life-ruining births can be nearly completely eliminated.

Take a look at some of our projects that work to empower girls, often to avoid child marriage:

Empower the Girls of Nepal: Mentor a girl from the lowest caste to become a leader in her community, and in turn empower other girls.

Ignite Girls’ Leadership in Pakistan: Run by the same group as the first project, Mentor a girl in Pakistan to become an agent for change, and a future mentor to other girls in her community.

Promote Education of Needy Girls in Tanzania: One of the best ways to combat adolescent pregnancy is to keep girls in school. Help these girls do just that.

If these aren’t enough, Jolkona has many more projects that empower girls in order to avoid early pregnancy.

Check out what Jolkona is up to on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest!

Exciting News! We at Jolkona are happy to announce two new partner projects in Ghana! Lumana is an organization providing microfinance programs in rural areas, as well as connecting young entrepreneurs with great opportunities. Empower Playgrounds Inc. (EPI) builds electricity-generating playground equipment, which can light up entire communities, as well as lamps and science kits for schools.

Why Ghana?

In 1957, when Ghana gained its independence, its potential was roughly equivalent to that of South Korea. However, South Korea today is much further ahead than Ghana by any growth metrics. This is because Ghana saw a series of debilitating military coups between 1966-1979, each one devastating for Ghana’s development, leading to a steep decline in GDP and standard of living. In 1981, flight lieutenant Jerry Rawlings had wrested control a second time, and began a decade long struggle to reform Ghana’s economy. In 1992, Ghana held free elections and set up a constitution. While now seen as an example of political reform and economic recovery, Ghana’s development was stunted by its turbulent history.

Ghana also has a large wealth gap, inflating its statistics without addressing the problem. While Ghana is an ambitious nation with a space program, and seemingly with money to spare as it spent $20 million on a lavish 50th anniversary celebration in 2007, there are stark problems that Ghana is not focusing on. Fully one half of Ghanaians do not have access to electricity, and many also have no running water, especially in rural areas. Ghana is also ranked 69th in the Corruption Perception Index, meaning that a fair amount of foreign aid doesn’t reach the people its meant to serve.

How can we fix this?

• The aim of Empower Playgrounds Inc (EPI) is to provide opportunities for bright children in dark situations to succeed and break through the poverty cycle. Executive Director Chris Owen told me. Our new project with them allows you to donate $50 to provide a child with an electric lantern, which can be charged during the day and used to do homework at night. Children are often expected to help out with chores or on family farms after school, and can’t do their homework in the dark. Many families resort to using gas lamps, which are detrimental to health when burned in-doors. This project addresses these basic needs of rural Ghaneans, and can decrease the wealth gap by providing an equal chance at education.
• Lumana found that 80% of microfinance programs in Ghana are in urban centers, and the vast majority of Ghana’s poor have no access to them. Our new project with them means that your gift of $50 will fund a 3-day training session for 1st time borrowers, people who will then have the skills to set up their own business. This project further reduces the wealth gap by providing small-business owners the skills they need to expand and thrive.

And our new partners are just as excited about us as we are about them! “After meeting with Jolkona staff and hearing about the innovative force it is in the non-profit world we knew we had to get involved” says Mr. Owen.

Wait! There’s more Jolkona on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

On Thursday of last week, a group of passionate individuals got together in a trendy building on Lenora and 1st to celebrate Jolkona and make their impact. That’s right, Socializing for Social Change‘s (S4SC) event benefitting Jolkona was a great success! Here’s the story of how the night went, and in true Jolkona fashion, a report of the impact the event had.

Volunteers from Jolkona and S4SC assembled at Maker’s Space at 4:00 to get ready for the event. They prepared food, put out the raffle station, hooked up the sound system, and set up two projectors; one highlighting different Global Health facts and Jolkona projects, the other broadcasting any tweets featuring #S4SC live. At 6:00, guests started arriving.

They were greeted at the door, and given a nametag featuring their twitter handle and the project they donated to with their ticket. They then got food, drinks, and raffle tickets; a chance to win one out of four fabulous prizes. At 7:30, S4SC founder Antonio Smith officially welcomed everyone who attended, and introduced our very own Nadia Khawaja, who gave guests the rundown on Jolkona. At 8:30, the raffle tickets were drawn, and everyone received swag bags filled with great prizes. By 9:30, the event was over, and volunteers helped return the space to the neat order it was in before.

I felt that the evening was very successful; S4SC created a lively atmosphere and a great forum to talk about Jolkona and giving. This kind of event is a great way to attract the vibrant and young community that Jolkona loves. Seeing the twitter wall live, and hearing about the potential amount of publicity for Jolkona, showed me yet again that each and every one of us, each drop of water counts towards making a difference.

The Impact:

-The hashtag #S4SC potentially garnered 30,000 impressions the night of the event!

-80 Event tickets were sold, meaning:

-10 youth will be sponsored to attend the Kick It with Kenya soccer/leadership conference.

-23 children will receive diarrhea treatment in Kolkata, India.

-8 Women will receive training to be community health promoters in rural Peru.

-56 Raffle tickets were bought; and Jolkona received a total of $1,100 for Global Health, finishing our Give Health matching campaign!

A huge thank you from all of us at Jolkona to Socializing for Social Change! Their work and partnership is what made this amazing and fun event possible.

See the total impact our Give Health Campaign had. If this event sounded fun, get ready for Corks N’ Forks on October 4th! Read more Jolkona on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Global health has never been more important. In our increasingly globalized society, where one can travel to the other side of the world in mere hours, improving quality and access to health not only benefits others but also ourselves. New medical breakthroughs protect millions of people from debilitating diseases and prevent even more from contracting them. But without access to these services, millions fall between the cracks.

In my own experience, access to health services is a major concern in all parts of the world. The United States, despite its status as a Western industrialized country, has significant problems providing healthcare to its own population. Over 50 million people are uninsured and cannot effectively access services without making a large financial commitment. I currently work at a hospital clinic and every day I face situations where patients feel overwhelmed by skyrocketing medical bills. Some of our cancer patients in particular must significantly downsize their lives to afford care. These problems similarly plague the Indian healthcare system, where hospital accessibility and quality varies with socioeconomic status. My father once fell ill during a visit and though his every need was met promptly, it was expensive and likely more than most Indians could afford.

Jolkona’s GiveHealth Campaign, connects people to many amazing projects that aim to close this gap. I helped support women health workers in Peru run by our partner, Awamaki, which provide health services to people in the remotest regions of the country. During my travels in South American with fellow Jolkona volunteers last winter, I observed first-hand how difficult life can be in rural areas. Through this organization, many villagers can gain access to medication and educational opportunities to improve their lives. Make sure to check out what other remarkable projects you can support and this month only, DOUBLE your impact!

You can also support women health workers in Peru by attending the #S4SC event this Thursday July 26th @ 6pm and choosing to donate your ticket fee of $10 to the Awamaki project.

Stay in touch with Jolkona and the impact your donations are making on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Before you read on, go check this website out. No, actually, click that link and take a look.

No Controversy is a site designed to facilitate awareness and dialogue about women who lack access to modern contraceptives. It was implemented with the fundamental goal of separating the use of contraceptives from abortion, and focusing on the benefits of family planning. It was also designed to generate hype for the London Family Planning Summit.

On July 11th, hundreds of delegates from 69 countries, NGOs and the UN gathered in London for the Family Planning Summit, an event aiming to revitalize support for family planning initiatives. In recent years, family planning has been pushed out of the global spotlight by issues such as HIV/AIDS, or by ideological arguments making it a sticky subject. The summit, hosted by Melinda Gates and Britain’s Department for International Development (DID), was put on to galvanize discussion about and support for family planning. The summit brought donor countries and groups in contact with governments of developing countries, who have created plans to increase education and access to contraception.

Prime Minister David Cameron and Melinda Gates speak with youth at the Summit

Why is this Important?

As stated in a recent Guardian article, Millennium development goal (MDG) 5 universal access to reproductive health, which is measured principally by access to family planning is the MDG least likely to be met by the 2015 deadline. But increasing access to contraceptives can drop maternal deaths by up to a third, because it means less high risk births such as births before the age of 18 and births spaced too closely. More than 220 million sexually active women say they do not want children but have no access to contraceptives. The need is there.

Increasing contraceptive use is a two-fold battle.

• On one end, ideological arguments lock up aid by claiming that contraceptives will increase sexual promiscuity, or by linking it with abortion or population control.
• On the other end, there is often misinformation about contraceptive use, so even if they are available, they might go unused. It is not enough just to provide access; women also need to be educated about the many options available to them, their side effects, and so on.

Sisters Brenda and Atupele (aged 16 and 18) both dropped out of school when they became pregnant, severely limiting their potential and putting their lives at risk

What are the Benefits?

The goal reached by the London Summit is to provide access to roughly half of the 220 million women lacking it by 2020, and organizers estimate this will cost 4 billion U.S. dollars in addition to what is already provided for. However, the benefits far outweigh the costs.

• The statistics: “By 2020, the collective efforts announced at the summit will result in 200,000 fewer women dying in pregnancy and childbirth, more than 110 million fewer unintended pregnancies, over 50 million fewer abortions, and nearly three million fewer babies dying in their first year of life.” (London Family Planning Summit)
• Beyond statistics: Planning when to have children empowers women to become more educated, and to earn more money. It also allows families to decide how many children they will have, meaning they can provide them with a better quality of life. Countries which are trending towards smaller family sizes have seen increases in education, prosperity, and GDP. Melinda Gates sums this up well in her TED talk.
• Multi-faceted impact: Much like improved sanitation, family planning helps nearly all the MDGs, especially those relating to maternal and child mortality, which are notoriously difficult to change.

What Can I Do?

You can have meaningful impact in three simple ways.

1. Perhaps you already have, but take the pledge on www.no-controversy.com. Show your support for this cause.
2. Donate to our projects aimed at improving access to contraception! Project 92 funds contraceptives directly, and Project 200 gives women the ability to educate their communities about health issues.
3. Share this blog post. Start a discussion about contraceptives. Raise awareness and dispel misinformation.

Stay in touch with Jolkona on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. If you are passionate about this subject, attend the #S4SC event and donate to Supporting Women Health Workers!

Last week I had the privilege of representing Jolkona at the White House Summit hosted by the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, and where people such as the Founder of Meet-up, Change.org and representatives from Rock the Vote, Echoing Green, Code for America (to name but a few) gathered to help the Administration answer the question: What should the blue print for citizen innovation look like and how can the White House best support it.

In its essence, the goal of this invite-only summit led by the Director of the Administration, Jonathan Greenblatt, was to understand from top innovators working in the sector how their administration can best help social innovation scale. I was honored to be a part of the first of hopefully many more discussions to help our country move forward through social innovation and civic engagement.

Here’s five of my top take-aways from the summit:

1. It is our moment to drive innovative social change to make our country better. Can’t agree more with this theme. We need people, especially young people to step up and support social change so that we’re all better off.
2. The importance of non-profits for a healthy economy. The non-profit sector is growing and today makes up about 10% of job force.
3. The importance of participating in civil society with regards to networking, building job skills, trust, community, and ultimately a greater level of economic growth. Networking and being an engaged citizen leads to more opportunities, jobs, and thriving communities.
4. There seems to be a lack of civic engagement in our country and the biggest challenge is how the White House can help spread enthusiasm and passion to make action more infectious.
5. It’s possible to do well and do good at the same time, and social enterprises are for-profit models of making change that exemplify this.  In addition, the idea of citizenship is not purely altruistic, but one of self-interest too.  It leads to stronger communities and economic growth if properly executed and understood.

We ended the day with a great discussion on the ways the White House can solve these issues, and here’s a few of my favorite ideas:

1. Sharing stories of new citizens.  40% of Fortune 500 companies are started by immigrants or children of immigrants. We need to hear more of these stories so everyone can truly embraces new citizens in this country.
2. Sharing positive stories of citizenship and social innovation around the country. Every day we hear stories of failure and are disillusioned by the power individuals wield. We need to share more positive impact stories to help inspire and re-engage people to get involved.
3. Leveraging the power of the White House to convene by hosting summits like this around the country to empower local leaders to spread civic engagement in their communities.
4. Funding should not only be available for evidence-based programs, but we need to take risks and provide more funding for new innovative approaches that have potential to scale and make larger impacts and create more jobs.

We ended the summit energized with the idea that we must all re-commit to building up our citizenship muscle. After an inspiring day with amazing leaders in the non-profit and social innovation space, I left pondering what I could pledge to do to help spread the idea of civic engagement and this is what I decided:

One of the common themes discussed was the power of storytelling and collective action – two things that are absolutely to Jolkona’s mission and model of giving. Sharing powerful stories inspires and engages people to action they would have otherwise not taken part in. In addition  to our featured donor and volunteer posts that share the stories of how individual donors and volunteers are making a huge impact, I’m committed to showcasing stories of how each partner we work with is changing lives with the support of our community. We’ll start featuring two partners a month to really showcase the power small actions and funding can truly make. Hopefully this will inspire even more people to get involved with Jolkona or any other cause that they feel passionate about.

To follow tweets from the summit, search for #WHsummit and #socialinnovaton and tweets my tweets at @nadiamahmud or @gl_weekend who helped facilitate the summit.

Imagine a woman working at a marketplace in the US . She needs to use the restroom, so she walks three minutes around the corner, grumbles about the line that has formed, but then uses the toilet and gets back to work.

Now imagine that woman living in the Shivaji Nagar slum in Mumbai. She has held it all day to avoid this moment, but she desperately needs to go. She walks 20 minutes just to reach the nearest women’s restroom to find it filthy, stained, and disgustingly odorous. After she finishes, the male attendant asks her to pay. “But I only urinated,” she protests. “How should I know?” he replies, still barring her exit. She hands over four rupees, about 1/6th of her daily earnings, and then is allowed to leave.

The above scenario happens daily for thousands of women in India as highlighted by these two New York Times articles. The lack of access to improved sanitation is a huge problem in India. In New Delhi alone, the national capital, there are 1,534 men’s toilets to just 132 for women. The situation is so dire that often women purposefully don’t drink water just so that they will not have to use the restroom, leading to further health problems than poor sanitation. Worldwide, around 2.6 billion people (36% of the world’s population) do not have access to improved sanitation facilities, and access is not increasing at the rate it needs to in order to meet the UN’s Millennium Development Goal (MDG) deadline of 23% in 2015.

While this data seems grim, in reality this lack of progress can be attributed to aid not going to the right places.

• Drinking water and Sanitation often get lumped together into one aid category, but aid is often allotted to the first and not the second. By 2015, access to drinkable water will have far surpassed the MDG target.
• Furthermore, as reported by the 2012 GLAAS Report, “only half of development aid for sanitation and drinking-water is targeted to the MDG regions of sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia and South-eastern Asia where 70% of the global unserved live.”
• Lastly, most of this aid is directed to urban areas, but urban residents represent less than 1/3 of people lacking improved sanitation.

While building toilets might be less attractive than building wells, improved sanitation has an enormous benefit to the people who have access to it. It reduces disease, child mortality, and helps practically all the MDGs. It increases dignity within a community, can help raise education, end the poverty cycle, and even increase GDP.

For example: Improved Sanitation addresses the Gender Equality MDG in many ways. More toilets increases women’s mobility, dignity, and ability to work, and lessens incidences of assault or rape. In addition, the 2012 GLAAS Report that showed that improved sanitation in schools lead to better attendance. For example, if schools worked to improve menstrual hygiene they could encourage girls who often miss class when menstruating to attend. This in turn helps close the education gap.

What is Jolkona doing about it?

We’re running the Give Health matching campaign, and Jolkona has three projects (Project 67, Project 76, and Project 95) that address the sanitation situation. Two of them build sustainable latrines in rural Southern Asia, and the other builds either temporary or permanent latrines in Haiti. If you support one of these projects, you will receive a photo of the latrine you provided, and information about the family you are supporting. Donate this month and make double the impact!

Keep up with us and the Give Health Campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Also check out the #S4SC Event!

Charts from: WHO and UNICEF (2010) Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water; 2010 update. Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation. [http://www.unicef.org/media/files/JMP-2010Final.pdf]

As we’re now getting into Global Health Month (a.k.a. July) I thought I would get everyone excited about our matching campaign starting on Monday! But you may be thinking ‘Global Health is such a huge topic, how can I make a difference?’ Well, we at Jolkona will tell you ‘One drop of water at a time.’

Speaking of drops of water, increasing access to sanitation and drinking water is a major solution that addresses 7 out of the 8 Millennium Development Goals. While we’ve made great progress in this area, much more still needs to be done. Jolkona has multiple projects that further this solution, such as this one.

This infographic provides a snapshot of how far we’ve come, and how the situation stands right now.

If you’re interested in supporting solutions such as this one, get excited for our upcoming matching campaign and Global Health Month!

You can learn more about the campaign and keep up with us and all that’s going on at Jolkona on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

To bring a little light to the recent June Gloom, we would like to take a moment to recognize Nancy Xu as this month’s featured volunteer. Nancy is a program manager at Microsoft for the Widows Design Studio and first got involved with Jolkona through the giving campaign events we planned at Microsoft in 2010. She has been a volunteer ever since. Over the years, Nancy has worked on several projects for Jolkona, including partner trip coordination and creative storytelling. However, most recently, Nancy has been working tirelessly with two other stellar volunteers: Punit Java, and Pavan Potaraju on building our first Windows phone app called Change by Jolkona - an innovative mobile app that lets you track the progress of a habit you wish to change while making a positive impact in the world through Jolkona’s diverse range of partner projects. Nancy was in charge of the app design and some of the management behind it. The app will be going live shortly so stay tuned!

Before working on the design for the Windows mobile app, Nancy volunteered on several video projects for Jolkona, including our most recent production for our Hulu PSA. Prior to that, she also helped produce and direct our Kids Give Back video and our short video Why Give. Nancy is a tremendous example of how young professionals can use their passion and professional skill set to give back. By pursuing her passion of storytelling, over the years she has helped Jolkona tell our story and those of our partners. She embodies what volunteering should be about: aligning your skills and passions to make a positive impact and further an organization’s mission.

Here’s what some of our volunteers have said about working with Nancy:

“Nancy is a wonderful volunteer for Jolkona. She has so much passion for her work and has helped develop amazing media campaigns, such as spearheading the new Jolkona PSA spot for Hulu. Despite having a full-time job at Microsoft, she pledges much of her time actively volunteering and participating in so many events and partner visits. Nancy is an indispensible asset and Jolkona is lucky to have her on the team.”
- Rekha Ravindran

“Nancy is a priceless asset to Jolkona. She has boundless passion for Jolkona and we have always been able to count on her to get the job done – and how! She is a big reason for our successful partner visits in East Africa and South America in the last 2 years – it would not have been possible without her! Her significant contribution to our Hulu video, other video editing projects, and the case study (in business club style) she did with the students at Generation Rwanda in December 2010 exemplify her extraordinary ability to take on a challenge and do it well!
Working with Nancy over the past 2+ years has been an incredible experience. We are lucky to have her as part of Jolkona!”
- Pavan Potaraju

“Nancy is super passionate about her video/media work for Jolkona. I had the opportunity to travel with Nancy to South America, especially in Peru where it was just the two of us. She is deeply understanding and respectful of other cultures, as well as compassionate. She is also delightfully friendly and blissfully easy to get along with. When we interacted with a Partner in Peru, Nancy was exceptionally well-prepared, exploring all angles of their work with her intelligent and well-thought out questions – I was most impressed!”
- Chi Do

One of the things I’ve come to admire and respect most about Nancy over the years is her fastidious organization and supreme ability to execute on projects, which I’m sure she’s garnered from her Program Manager position at Microsoft. These skills have been clearly demonstrated on all the Jolkona projects she has volunteered with. Jolkona is remarkably fortunate to have the dedication and support of so many amazing volunteers, and Nancy is no exception. Thank you, Nancy, for being one of our rockstar volunteers and a stalwart advocate for Jolkona.

Are you in interested in volunteering? Do you want to use your passions and skills to help build a new generation of philanthropists? Find out more information by emailing us at contact@jolkona.org. You can also keep up with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.